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Tuesday, April 24, 2012

She wears short skirts

Today I'm wearing the outfit I managed to spend my consignment earnings on. Well, minus the jacket and accessories, those were already in my closet. But the shirt and skirt are new. This skirt totally reminds me of a skirt I had when I worked my first post college job. The pattern is almost identical. The big difference though is that skirt was a wee bit shorter than this one. And that brings me to story time! I shall try not to make it too long, but it gave me a good chuckle as I was remembering something.

So the first two years I was out of college I worked in the church I grew up in as a youth minister. And my Pastor was awesome and didn't really set a "dress code" so we could wear jeans, t-shirts and the like. In the summer, my office was hot. It was in an old building with no air conditioning. So, on days I knew I wouldn't be crawling around with kids, sometimes I wore little tank tops and short skirts. Hey I was 23 and I wasn't a nun. I wasn't showing mid drift or my booty, so I figured it was all good.

The 2nd summer I worked there, I was fortunate enough to have a close friend working as my assistant. And we dressed pretty similarly. If it was a hot day, we wore tank tops. One day, we went to an all staff meeting, which included the staff from the school that was associated with our church. Each staff person could add items to the agenda. My friend and I looked at the agenda and we see under the school Principal's update the topic of "what is appropriate attire for a Catholic institution?" We looked at each other and we looked around the room and we realized, that was directed at us. And we were steaming. We refused to participate in the conversation, which got fairly heated and my Pastor defended us stating "Who are we to be the clothing police? I see nothing wrong with how any member of my staff dresses and if I were to see a problem, I would be the first person to deal with it." The topic was tabled and the meeting was over. My friend and I holed up in my office and totally crabbed about the whole thing and then my Pastor came in. And this is the part that I love - he said "Are you guys pissed? Cause I was pissed. And I wouldn't blame you for being pissed." This was a Catholic priest folks. I loved that about him. We laughed and talked with him and again he said, "If I ever have a problem with how you dress I will say so. But I think you guys are doing a great job." In the end, my Pastor was moved to another church and a bunch of things happened in the year that followed and I realized my calling was NOT to work with kids and teenagers, so I left that job and actually left that church all together a few years later. But I still look back on those days fondly and laugh.

So there you go. Story for the day. I think that this skirt is a very appropriate length and I'm loving the colors, I'll find lots of ways to remix it this summer! I also included a picture with my Haiku bag - still loving it, it's so rare for me to use the same bag for so many days in a row, but I haven't stopped using this one since Easter. I love it that much! If you've made it this far through my long rambling post, thanks for reading! Have a great day!

Ahh-great times we had when we both worked there. My dad and I still laugh about that meeting and how cool our priest was about that. I will never forget how pissed we were!! I'm glad that we had each other though.

Oh no! If I had been the one they were talking about I think I would have been SO embarrassed, probably would have cried, and then I would have gone and become a nun or something just to show them that I wasn't trying to be provocative. Obviously I would have handled the situation WAY different (and way worse) than you. I'm not good with conflict haha!

I wouldn't even consider this a short skirt...it's still below your knee! I do think there are boundaries you shouldn't cross wardrobe-wise, but this one would be ridiculous :) Way to wear that skirt, lady!

OMG I LOVE the colors of this (lol, don't mean to yell, but it's so true). I think this skirt is the perfect length on you, and a great shape to boot. That's so cool about your pastor. Back when I actually attended regular church, I'm sure I dressed like I was "of the devil" (lol gothteen), but no body said a negative thing or gave me the evil eye. I also started attending adult classes in my teens because I wasn't in the same life stage as a lot of my "peers"... I think there are cool churches with good non-judgemental people out there.